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So, Dale Sveum set off a bit of a discussion yesterday when he said that Julio Borbon, essentially, was DFA’d for his bone-headed baserunning mistake on Friday (taking off for third from second with no outs in the 9th of a game the Cubs trailed by four runs – yes, it was very bone-headed – and getting thrown out). “That obviously was an unfortunate thing that happened,” Sveum said, per Cubs.com. “But it is a point that, we just can’t keep having those things go on and [Borbon] has had a few of those things himself. So it was just time to make an adjustment to the roster and see if somebody else can do the job.” Are the Cubs making a point here about consistently making the same mental mistakes, and playing the game the right way? Sure. But if Anthony Rizzo makes a series of mental mistakes, is he going to be DFA’d? Of course not. So let’s be very careful to squeeze right into the nuggety, nuanced center here: Borbon was a fringe roster guy whom the Cubs were not going to keep on the 40-man roster all Winter anyway. Whether he was DFA’d Friday or in late September, it was coming. His gaffe probably sped up the process, so Sveum’s thoughts are literally true. But a lot fed into the decision, and it wasn’t solely his mistake on Friday.

Cubs GM Jed Hoyer suggested to Cubs.com that he expects this year’s waiver trade period to be fairly active. That may be true across baseball, but as I wrote on Thursday, it’s going to be tricky for the Cubs to move any notable pieces this month, because of the restrictions that come after the non-waiver Trade Deadline.

Among other things, Bruce Miles addresses the increasing issue of looooong games. While baseball has changed in ways that necessarily lengthen the game (focus on seeing more pitches, frequent pitching changes, etc.), I tend to think that this is a legitimate concern for the sport going forward. We hardcore-ers have to acknowledge that, for casual fans, baseball can be a very boring sport to watch. The long-term success of the sport is dependent on continuing to attract new fans, and most fans start out as mere casual fans. Three-plus-hour baseball games do not appeal to casual fans. I don’t know how to meaningfully impact the length of games (gimmicks like “one throw over to first, and your next throw to first is a ball” would only do so much), especially in a television era driven by commercials. But working to keep average game times WELL under three hours should be a high priority for MLB. And yet you almost never hear about it at the league level.

Number 4 is not necessary. First, there are not that many IWs and some pitchers have trouble making those tosses. Adds a bit to the game. And, I forget the pitcher and batter but some years ago, I think in the playoffs, a pitcher faked an IW and threw a fastball strike for a strikeout. Was one of the neatest things I’ve seen in the game.

Reality Check

you obviously think great in the AM; i’ve said those same things for years. i love baseball; my kids; it’s boring except they like to swing the bat. once grandpa selig leaves; hopefully the new commish will enforce rules and make efforts of those same things. watching players step out after every pitch is crazy; same goes with pitchers who take 30 seconds to throw 1 pitch. every other sport has a clock; time for baseball to enforce their’s. (wait until replay gets used……….how much that will ADD to the game’s length).

Cubsfan21

Wow. Matt Garza is a fucking tool.

All that money, someone should teach him the difference between there, their and they’re.

Jim L

Competitive fire has no time to fix grammar or spelling mistakes.

http://www.backingthepack.com Rynomite

+1 to both of the above.

And good riddance.

Hey, Matt: Do your fucking job out there and then teams would not make you look like a fool with constant bunting.

And your twitter rant just made you look so much worse.

Can MLB suspend his dumb ass for life too?

Again: GOOD RIDDANCE!

CubsFaninMS

Samardzija has competitive fire. Garza may also have it, but intermixed also with foolish, immature reactions such as this. You can have one without the other: Hank Aaron, Mike Schmidt, Greg Maddux, Albert Pujols… and many, many others have done it the right way. Milton Bradley, Carlos Zambrano, and Ozzie Guillen are very competitive, but that doesn’t exonerate them from being a poor role model.

Satch Dobrey

So right! I was bombarded with Garza fans when I called him a clown after he interrupted an All-Star game interview with Travis Wood by putting a shaving cream pie in his face. Now this. He is a clown tool…

http://Jplgxk AlwaysNextYear

That made him a clown tool. What is a clown tool by the way.

Mick

Texas G.M. has told Garza to stay off Twitter. G.M. said he crossed the line in verbage with players wife. Now Matt has issued the sincere apology that his agent probably authored. Practice fielding bunts Matt or your career in jeporady.

Another way Baseball could improve popularity is to get rid of their idiotic black out restrictions. If I’m a young kid why would I want to play/like baseball when I can’t watch any damn games. Where Basketball or Football when in season you have no problem finding the games to watch and by the way, it’s all free with no extra insane cost like MLB.com or MiLB.com (really? Charging free minor league baseball is pathetic).

CubFan Paul

This. The blackouts are more of a problem for casual fans than game lengths.

cking6178

Agreed!! Baseball’s blackout rules are ridiculous….I live in Houston, so to watch the Cubs I buy the MLB package…it frustrates me to no end that I cannot watch an “out of market” game on Saturday’s because Fox regionalizes their broadcast….As a comparison, I also order NFL Sunday ticket and the only games that are blacked out are the ones that are shown on local channels, thus I can watch ANY game that I want regardless of regional coverage….Before I moved to Houston, I lived in Charlotte, NC and MLBs blackout rules for Charlotte – which, mind you, has ZERO MLB teams – were all Cincinatti, Washington, Atlanta, AND Baltimore games – none of which were covered by a regional sports channel in Charlotte. Talk about lost opportunity!!

florida Al

I dont care what anyone says about Garza…. I think he is the cats pajamas…

Cubsfan21

Misogamy/Racism is the cats pajamas? You’ve shown yourself to be as ignorant as Garza. Congrats!

Cubsfan21

**Misogyny

wvcubsfan

Pretty broad brush you paint with. However, I’m going to refrain from judging your character from a single post on a blog and attempt to judge your intelligence or lack thereof.

Cubsfan21

What he said yesterday was completely sexist. All these people wanna light torches over Ryan Braun/AROD/Whoever using PEDs but something like this is way worse. Not to mention his racist tweets when he was at the airport. Complaining about security checking his “snapback, bro” and letting the “guy in the turbine (his spelling, not mine) go right through. Maybe I should be judging your intelligence?

Cyranojoe

I think you and I have about the same assessment of these tweets, but there *is* a way of interpreting what he said about the turban as being a fair judgment/question… that said, I’m afraid he didn’t mean it in that way. I’m kinda starting to feel glad he’s moved on.

Cyranojoe

That smiley face should be sticking out its tongue in peevish manner, not grinning like that! Lame.

wvcubsfan

You do your judging…..you seen to be good at that without evidence and/or context.

Cubsfan21

Hahahaha. Seriously. What kind of context/evidence do you need when it comes to this? Maybe you have some trouble with reading comprehension? It’s all pretty obvious. The context/evidence is right there.

Scotti

Context? Well how about what was said TO Garza? Why would the author just show what Garza was saying? The context appears to be that the other player either A ) was hiding behind his wife as (Garza points out) or B ) the other player has a wife that was going off on Garza’s twitter account when the player had told her not to. Either way, that isn’t professional conduct. It isn’t misogyny to tell a guy to speak up for himself.

My wife works in the corporate world and if I were to go off on one of her coworkers via twitter, someone would pull her aside and tell her to have me STFU and they would be 100% right. She doesn’t need me to defend her (or get in her business). The other ball player should have handled his business like a big boy.

Is MLB “a man’s game?” Last I checked even MiLB is a man’s game and spouse’s (and girlfriends, boyfriends, moms, dads, brothers, sisters, whatevers) need to STFU.

Scotti

Here’s a “for instance” that occurred in our family: my wife was sexually harassed by a guy in her office. I didn’t call him out on twitter, I didn’t wait for him by his car, I didn’t stare at him menacingly at the company picnic… The guy is, quite literally, half my size–I could have crushed him like a bug. I DID support my wife and I encouraged her as she wrote her complaint. Part of the guy’s defense was “They say things like this on South Park.” Needless to say, he doesn’t work there anymore. But the point is, a spouse has a roll and mouthing off isn’t it.

waittilthisyear

i would have beat his ass

Scotti

The temptation was there. But that wouldn’t have helped my wife. She took control and understood that she has the ability to control her life.

mudge

role. eat a roll, play a role.

Scotti

Life. Get a life.

Anna

Scotti: the point is your wife is sexually abused and you did not even stare at him at the company picnic. Wifey will be looking around for other support me thinks.

Carew

It takes a true man not to beat the crap out of, or death stare, another for harrassing his love

http://Jplgxk AlwaysNextYear

It takes a real man to stand up for his wife. You don’t need to beat the crap out of him but I would have certainly had a nice conversation with him. It’s not about intimidation but to let him know if this happens again there will be consequences.

Where do find all these. It seems like you post or know something related to every topic that a poster messages.

Fishin Phil

Glad to see Borbon gone, but I agree that it was more the fact that he is not good at baseball than the one bonehead play.

Eric

Intentional walk on command makes sense. But how many do you see in a given game?

Length between pitches is really where it’s at. And for the love of pete MLB, why don’t you do anything to generate fan interest in the minors? I live in Tennessee. I’m not going to make it to many MLB games but I’m surrounded by minor league teams for the Cubs, Brewers, and Dodgers. Yet, I never hear or see commercials about any of these teams outside of their host cities.

Jon

I could see a bunt if the score was like 10-1, but a 4-2 game ? garza has some issues

twins414

I agree. And it was only 3-2 when he did it! Sounds like a great play to me.

Eric

Garza may have kept a filter on since he watched what happened to Zambrano and Bradley. He might have been a head case the entire time.

cking6178

Yep, agreed…I didn’t hear many of his teammates comment on him being a good teammate.

ken

To shorten games, I suggest banning batting gloves and running gloves and limiting the number of times batters can leave the batting box per AB. There could also so be a “pitch clock”, just like there is a shot clock and play clock in other sports. Once the pitcher has the ball in his glove, and the next batter is in the box, the pitcher has 15 s. to pitch, call time, or throw to another player, which could only occur if a runner was on base and the throw made to a player covering that base. That should get the typical AB down to about 1 min or so.

FFP

“I suggest banning batting gloves and running gloves”
Trying to think of reasons why this is a bad idea. I can’t think of one yet
(although Nomar wouldn’t have liked it).
It’s thowback-y. I don’t think it wouldn’t cause any career shortening injuries (more hamate surgeries maybe?). And it would shorten games by picking up the tempo in highest leverage minutes.

gocatsgo2003

Because the proliferation of batting gloves to the point where it is odd to see a guy NOT using gloves should tell you they have some kind of positive impact on performance (even if it is just marginal)? And because the vast majority of gloves you see worn exclusively while running the bases are to protect injuries?

FFP

“Because the proliferation of batting gloves to the point where it is odd to see a guy NOT using gloves should tell you they have some kind of positive impact on performance” Sure, and when cops arrest a guy that should tell me he’s done something wrong. (What’s left for a jury or a judge (or a message board) to debate?)

I’m pretty sure gloves have a positive impact for the player, yes. A) I’d guess they at least cut down on that crappy bee sting feeling when the ball inevitably hits that bat wrong (not a nice feeling, but not career ending either) and B) I’d imagine gloves are also tied to endorsement contracts (another positive impact for the player yet one that doesn’t overwhelm the fan (or them)).
The running gloves maybe make sense, but I think the part that slows the game down is when the gloves are switched after the guy gets on base.

Someone must have done a study on how batting gloves have changed the game (assuming this is a right place to ask “anyone know where this is?”) and I imagine it will show that gloves make hitters better hitters. But by how much?

And not everything that makes hitters better is legal or should be.

ssckelley

Yes, ban the gloves then the hitters would have to find something else to adjust when they step out.

jaslhill

My bet would be on the jockstrap. Not sure I want to see every batter adjust his jock 5 times an at bat. Eek.

Internet Random

Agreed. Three is not enough, but five is too many.

http://Bleachernation.com Frank

First of all blackouts are stupid. I live 4 hours a way from Chicago but I’m blacked out of cubs games. What even more stupid is its not just home games. I could see some egghead at MLB thinking I might drive 4 hours to watch the game but what about those games in la and San Francisco??

http://Bleachernation.com Frank

I’ve always liked garza but in this case I think he is being an idiot. Bunts are a part of the game. If I played I’d bunt the ball to garza as much as possible. He would throw the ball a way at least 75% of the time. If Castro or rizzo did what borbon did,they may or may not get benched. Since borbon was already benched,nowhere to go but out.

wvcubsfan

I was watching the game (because of the black outs mentioned above) and he was for sure upset about the bunt, but it appeared that there were a number of things he was upset about. The bunt drove in a run, the mound had a huge hole in it, Tim McCarver is a grade A idiot, and Joe Buck was going on and on about how great the drink Tony Larussa is. OK, well he might not have been upset about the last two but i sure as hell was.

Furthermore, I kind of agree that the if the player had a beef with Garza he should have said something himself, not had his wife air his dirty laundry. I get it that Garza should probably develop a little thicker skin, but this same mentality is what most fans of the team he’s on loves.

ND Cub

I ump a lot of baseball, and there are a ton of time related rules that aren’t enforced at the MLB level for various reasons. Two of the biggest are keeping the batter in the box and amount of time in between half innings. The inning break is tougher to enforce because of tv commercials, but I think the majority of this issue could be addressed by everyone on the field. Get on the bump and throw the ball; get in the box and swing the bat.

North Side Irish

Bruce Miles ‏@BruceMiles2112 1m
Logan Watkins officially gettiing called up from Class AAA Iowa with Luis Valbuena going to the DL. #Cubs

ssckelley

Barney to the bench?

Austin

Is Watkins arm strong enough to play 3rd base? His bat doesn’t play there but neither did Valbuenas and it would suck to bring him up to ride the bench.

wvcubsfan

Why not Castro to third, Barney to short, and Watkins at third. That way we can have one of the lightest hitting infields in all baseball.

wvcubsfan

oops Watkins to second……….sure wish I could blame auto correct.

ssckelley

How about Lake or Ransom at third, Watkins to second, and Barney grab some bench?

What a relief i was afraid they’d have a person that was bad at baseball at third base.

What is it about third base and the Cubs? Hopefully Olt can figure it out, and if not hopefullt Bryant can in a few years. I just hope this stretch isn’t as long as the one between Santo and ARam. Granted Cey did have a few years here at the end of his career.

Kyle

How about not? Barney is the better player and has more of an immediate future with the Cubs. There’s no reason to bench him for Watkins.

ssckelley

Watkins has demonstrated in the minors to have more potential at the plate than Barney and has been improving defensively. The season is a loss anyway and soon there will be a log jam at middle infield, so let’s see what Watkins has got.

wvcubsfan

What stats are you looking at? If you compare Watkins minor league numbers with Barney’s major league numbers I can buy that. However, their minor league numbers are almost identical.

Kyle

This isn’t A-ball. Some sort of vague “potential” is a lot less important than the fact that we don’t have any sort of indication that he’s good enough to be a starter in the major leagues.

Barney is 14th in the league in WAR from a 2b despite having a comically low BABIP. I guess I have to accept that some fans will never accept that Barney’s combination of offense and defense is basically average for a starting 2b in the major leagues. I should probably just file these people under the same category as people who still use pitcher W-L in 2013.

wvcubsfan

I have a suspicion that Watkins won’t hit any better than Barney, but I think that will either be proved or disproved before the end of the season.

We get it you don’t like Barney, but to assume that someone that has made a living in the minor leagues while Barney has been playing in the major leagues is going to come in and he a major upgrade is a bit far fetched. Granted that’s just my opinion.

hansman1982

He’ll be a slight upgrade offensively but a slight downgrade defensively. In reality, neither of them have a long-term future on the Cubs outside of util bats off the bench.

Kyle

Proejcting their offense going forward (i.e. not using Barney’s .220 BABIP-depressed slash line), Watkins is a slight downgrade offensively and a large downgrade defensively.

Internet Random

In re long games: Raise the seams, raise the mound.

Internet Random

And yet another reason to nix the designated-hitter rule.

wvcubsfan

I think the DH in both leagues would speed up the game. Less double switches, no need for two pinch hitters in the same AB, etc.

Ivy Walls

Lets be real here. Fringe or role players must contribute at higher situational mental levels than everyday players. I saw a tweet that Borbon was on base only 33 times to date, and gets CS in the 9th when his role is base running and defense. His WAR is -0.5 so he is worst than an average replacement player in that role…

Fringe players cannot afford to make mental mistakes, they don’t have the physical talent to make up for it outside their role.

OkieCub

I understand all the reasons for shortening the games, but I think the real problem is that baseball is a thinking man’s game, and the casual public is a bunch of idiots with 10 second attention spans. My 10 cents.

Awakeape

Was it just me but when I was watching the game I was pissed at dejesus for waving him to third on the passed ball

Jono

We want more. We like it, we want more (where’s darth and his memes?)

Mark

I think that you have a pitch clock like the 24 second clock in basketball. If they don’t throw a pitch within the allotted amount of time, it is a ball. In addition, the team only gets so many time outs. These are timeouts asked for by the manager or any player including trips to the mound, etc.

Jono

Technically, they already do. But it’s never enforced. Maybe they should just start enforcing it

Mick

I was counting seconds the other day on some hitters and they were frequently at 20 sec. before ready to hit. Dejesus drives me crazy with his little girly routine. Is not the rule at 20 sec.?

Jono

I didn’t know about a hitter’s time limit. I just knew about the pitchers’. I believe theirs is 12 seconds

Die hard

2 strikes ur out

Mick

Die Hard also likes Canadian football.

SalukiHawk

What am I not seeing about the baseball attendance figures that seem to show attendance steadily growing, suggesting the popularity of the sport, if not at an all time high, certainly quite popular? I guess I’ve never understood the whole “baseball is unpopular and losing the younger generation because it is boring” argument. Perhaps I am wearing rose colored glasses because I love the sport as is, but when I see the state of the game, I see this length of the game discussion as a bit contrived. That said, I think you could take reasonable measures to speed things up (many of those listed). But part of baseball will always be it’s methodical pace.

wvcubsfan

I don’t think attendance and TV ratings are anywhere close to all time highs.

SalukiHawk

Avg attendance numbers through the years-MLB: these numbers seem to contradict the sky-is-falling theories. Again, I am no statistician, so someone explain what I am missing. http://michaelbein.com/baseball.html (scroll down to “attendance stats…no way to link directly).

Cleanup Poster

In my opinion, football is way more boring and drags on way more than baseball
One play in football last a couple of seconds (for only a couple yard gains) then they spend the next 5 minutes talking about the play while watching it from 20 different angles.

wvcubsfan

I’m guessing you’re a baseball fan since your on here. Most casual fans find baseball boring because of the lack of action which even with the breaks football is not lacking in.

Cleanup Poster

Yeah, HUGE baseball fan. The only other sport I can stomach is college basketball ( GO KENTUCKY! ) its just my own humble opinion that football is a boring waste and has nothing on baseball in terms of action. I would rather fight a hungry grizzly bear protecting its baby with nothing but a small switch than sit through a football game.it just bores me to tears.

TSB

Even worse is soccer. If baseball was played like soccer, the batter would walk, go to third on fielding errors, and be stranded there. The game would end 1-0 when after 24 innings of no score, the teams would have a home-run derby to decide the game.

cubs2003

It might help to shorten games if hitters and pitchers had strictly enforced time limits. A hitter steps out of the box during an at bat and he gets 4 seconds or something to get back in or it’s an automatic strike. No more going through their routine on every pitch, only when they start the at bat. A pitcher gets 10 seconds from when he gets the ball until he starts his delivery or it’s an automatic ball. You would need a clock though.

Mick

Pitcher has 12 seconds once batter in box. Umpires ignore rule.

cubs2003

Put a clock on it and he wouldn’t be able to.

SalukiHawk

I guess it depends somewhat on how you define “casual fan.” Most of the people I know who find baseball boring simply aren’t fans period. I don’t hear a lot of people saying, “man, I like baseball, but it’s boring.” Doubt the changes that would speed up the game would be enough to convince someone that the game is boring otherwise. So my question would be…who is it exactly we’re trying to win over?

TSB

I think a “casual” fan is someone that goes to a game because it’s something to do, and so they can say they went. Serious fans want the Cubs to win the pennant; casual fans just want the Cubs to win the game they are at.

cubs2003

I think this hits the nail on the head. It’s one of those games that you kind of have to follow closely to appreciate. Casual fans can enjoy a day at Wrigley, but I doubt they’re going to watch a whole game on a Tuesday night or whatever. It’s 162 games and no single game is all that important until the very end of the season. I think that’s why football does so well. I can get casual or even non sports fans to hang out and watch a Bears game no problem. I try do that with a Cubs game and they have zero interest ever unless it’s at the ballpark.

Josh t

Garza pulled a Dave Sappelt on twitter. Wondering if it makes team warry of him when he becomes a FA. He’s kind of nutcase. I doubt it affects his stock at all bc teams are going to pony up to get him regardless probably but they don’t want there players pulling those kind of antics.

Diesel

I was talking to a more casual fan about the length of game “issue” and actually made him see my point of view very easily. My view is I like long games. The way I convinced him was when you spend the money on going to a game you want to spend as much time there as possible. The longer you’re there the more value for your money. No one wants to spend $95 a person for Disneyland and only stay for an hour so why do we spend anywhere from $2 (yes I’ve seen tickets that cheap sold by a mlb team) to maybe $1000 or more why are we in such a hurry to leave? He said that made sense and now has a better appreciation for longer games.

Cubman23

They cut it from 20 seconds down to 12 seconds in 2007 – why the hell did they change it if they’re not going to enforce it? Basically every major sport has, and enforces, a delay of game rule except baseball. It just doesn’t make sense.

Chris

Yes. Why doesn’t NBA enforce carrying the ball or palming or traveling down the lane . My dad who played ball for a long time said he could not even leave batters box and forget calling time out while you adjust your hat, gloves, jockstrap, and get a handful of seeds.

Mark

I think that you post a clock behind home plate and one in center field with a buzzer. If the pitcher doesn’t pitch it, it becomes a ball. This includes any throws over to first etc. Just like in basketball, they can make as many passes as they want but they eventually have to shoot it within 24 seconds. In addition, the batter has to stay in the batter box. If he steps out, it counts against their allotted time outs. These are reasonable ways to keep the game going. Keep the action happening.

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